Abstract

Background: Long-term conditions and their management are amajor health problem (Dept. of Health 2006). New governmentpolicy requires individual patient care-planning in primary care,(Dept. of Health 2008). Care-planning in diabetes is currently beingimplemented in primary care, through a variety of means.Methods: Teams from general practices in the West Yorkshire regionwere invited to attend workshops on the care-planning process.After attendance at these workshops some practices engage in pilotimplementation of care-planning models with selected patients withlong-term conditions. Initial evaluation focused on workshopparticipants’ perceptions of the care planning process, implementationissues and benefits or barriers to using care-planning inpractice. Focus group discussions were carried out and contentanalysed for emerging issues to be identified.Results: Seven workshop sessions were completed with attendanceby General Practitioners, practice nurses, practice managers andothers, usually in practice teams (n5122). Perceptions identified:care planning includes patients in decision-making; gives patientschoice of services; allows pre-visit consultation; improves patient/provider relationship; could increase anxiety inpatients; increasedbureaucracy; increased consultation time and costs; formalisingestablished practice; further training required to fully implementcare-planning.Comments: It is encouraging that care-planning is receivingincreased attention in primary care. Evaluation of the workshopssuggests that practitioners want further training in advancedconsultation skills and behavioural interventions, in order toimplement care-planning successfully.

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

Abstracts of Diabetes UK's Annual Professional Conference, Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow, UK, 11–13 March 2009
Clinical care and other categories posters: Professional education and development: No P500